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2006 10KLF Review | Day One

Thanks for Dave Weissman, Live Music Blog was able to send two lucky dudes to see the 2006 10,000 Lakes Music Festival and report back on how it went. From the early looks of it, I’m sure it was a killer festival and we hope to have some more coverage coming up in the next week or so. In the meantime, download some shows from the festival and enjoy the first review from the festival from Kane @ Burning Oak.

1300 miles, 5 days, and 4 tanks of gas later, we’re back. The sun was in full force this weekend, the glowsticks were flying, and the crowd vibes were the best of any festival I’ve seen yet. The entire weekend culminated into a full 4 hour G.R.A.B. set as many expected, including a nearly 30 minute fireworks display while the band jammed out to The Who’s “Who Are You?” and an encore of The Beatles’ “Get Back.” There’s plenty more to talk about so let’s start at Thursday.

After pulling into Detroit Lakes on Thursday afternoon, grabbing beer and groceries, setting up camp at Blue Ox, and heading over to the concert grounds, we sadly entered to Saloon Stage to the sounds of Family Groove Company leaving the stage. FGC has been one of my favorites since I first started listening to them this Spring, so I was looking forward to catching another one of their shows, but I at least noticed that they had packed the entire building inside and out, which is always good to see.

After saying hello to FGC I passed Tea Leaf Green on the Barn Stage. It was way too packed to even consider getting over there, but the sound was good and the crowd was definitely into it, which seems to fit all of my previous TLG experiences. I went to check out the last bit of Kimock/Perkins on the Field Stage based on a friends recommendation. I had no experience with the band prior to this, but they kept a large crowd dancing all the while. Very spacy jams but they always managed to bring it back to a strong, rocking finish at the end of every song. Definitely worth checking out if they’re ever around your area.

There was a large break at this point and I headed over to the VIP campground with some friends I ran into to grab a beer and some chicken burgers, which are suprisingly good. O.A.R. at this time was a skip for me, as much as I love to scream along to “Crazy Game Of Poker” at parties, the band isn’t my style. Rather, we headed over to the Lake Sallie campground for a Talking Heads party before String Cheese Incident, the Thursday night headliner. After a good round of dancing to “Take Me To The River” and a few other personal favorites, we made our way to the main stage.

Let me start off by saying the main stage grounds are the largest of any show I’ve been to. They easily dwarfed Alpine Valley and Three Sister’s Park, which would be the only similarly sized venues I’ve been to. That said, the entire venue was filled for String Cheese Incident, who definitely did not dissappoint. The band opened with a couple old favorites, “Texas > Johnny Cash.” I wasn’t at the stage at this point but even so, the main stage is easily heard from the Blue Ox campgrounds and most of the surrounding areas, which is very convenient to those of us running late for the main shows, or the people who just want to relax at camp and hear the bands in the background. I managed to make it to the stage right as the band began covering Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker.” A very solid cover, one I haven’t seen live from them yet, and the crowd definitely enjoyed it. The band continued to close the first set with a “Looking Glass > Bam!” before heading off for set break.

Upon starting the second set, you could tell the band was ready to play. Opening with “Under African Skies > Rivertrance”, then a great rendition of “Sometimes A River,” which has only gotten better since I first heard it a year ago. “Rivertrance” also happened to spark the largest glowstick war I have ever witnessed in my life. I know for a fact that one person brought 3500 into the grounds himself, since I watched him haul them in like Santa Claus with a big bag on his back. Here’s a rough camera-phone picture. I left the main stage area at this point to go back to my campground, since I was exhausted, but everyone else said the band had a killer second set after I left, including a “Jellyfish> Dirk> Black Clouds” to finish the set and an “On The Road” encore. I can’t wait to hear the torrent, since this is probably the best show I’ve listened to since Vegoose Late Night 2005.

After the show I was awoken by John and proceeded to go hang out with some high school friends we ran into, so I didn’t make it to any of the Late Nights on Thursday, but rather opted to get some good sleep in order to have a full day Friday. More on that tomorrow, and some great pictures will get uploaded as well.